Thursday’s loss to the Trail Blazers in Portland would have been a new low for the Knicks had they not already bottomed out over their previous two losses to the Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors.

There was some good news, but none for the Knicks or their fans.

In addition to getting a fast food coupon when the their team cracked the 100-point barrier in the 105-90 win, Trail Blazers supporters relished the opportunity to see Raymond Felton lose (who knew Felton was this hated?).

“The boos, oh yeah, they were loud,” Felton said, as quoted by Marc Berman of the New York Post. “It was loud. I definitely heard that. But it definitely made me smile. It made me laugh. It was the first time ever for my career. I guess I did make a big impact if they booed me like that.’’

The painful thing was, the Knicks nearly won this game. The Blazers inexplicably turned away from their man-to-man defense late in the game, allowing J.R. Smith to get some room on the perimeter, where he nailed a few 3-pointers to finish with 33 points.

The Knicks cut a 16-point deficit to 80-76 with 7:54 left, but the Blazers pulled away with a 15-2 run, opening a 95-78 lead with 4:24 remaining. Now the Knicks’ Atlantic Division lead over the Nets is down to one game.

Mike Woodson’s team was competitive for most of the first half, actually, until another second-quarter meltdown (or as they call it in Portland, a “Feltdown”).

Woodson was squeezing the most of his roster, and the Knicks had scored 48 points with four minutes remaining in the first half before things went horribly wrong. Portland closed out the half with 13 unanswered points and then scored the first basket of the second half. The Blazers, with Lillard pushing the pace, extended their lead to 78-62 as the Knicks began to fade.

Obviously the Knicks were shorthanded on Thursday. Tyson Chandler sat with a left knee contusion, Carmelo Anthony was back in New York to have his right knee drained, and Amar’e Stoudemire continued to recuperate from his second knee surgery of the season.

But even after the Stoudemire revelation, the Knicks haven't seemed overly vigilant about determining the extent of some injuries. Chandler, for instance, said he didn't want to—and wouldn't—undergo an MRI for his knee, while Anthony played on his knee twice this week before having additional tests Thursday to determine whether his condition had worsened. The team said he was questionable for the game in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The Knicks also lost Kenyon Martin to a bone contusion in his knee or shin, depending on who you ask. The injury didn’t appear serious, but we’ll obviously have to wait for more information.

In other Knicks news:

• As NJ.com’s Tony Williams described, the Blazers barely had to touch their bench while running the Knicks off the Rose Garden floor: “Portland's bench is about as thin as any team's in the league, but they didn't need any firepower from the reserves, especially as the Knicks were so undermanned that lightly-used reserves like Kurt Thomas and Marcus Camby played extended minutes. Thomas, who got the start for Chandler, had six points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes, while Camby added eight points (all in the first half) and a team-high 10 rebounds in 19 minutes.”

• As I wrote for The Wall Street Journal, the Knicks are sinking fast, while the Nets are now in position to capture the Atlantic--if that means anything: “The Knicks held a six-game lead over the Nets after beating them at Madison Square Garden, 100-86, back on Dec. 19... Entering Thursday, however, the Knicks had gone just 19-18 since that win. Their struggles mounted over the first two games of their current West Coast swing as they were outscored, 209-157, by the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets.”

• The New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro thinks Anthony is in a no-win situation: “He can’t win... That’s the best defense I’m going to muster for Carmelo Anthony, and even by saying that I understand what it implies out of context: that he can’t win. That he can’t get his teams out of the first round of the NBA playoffs. That he is a terrific player, not a winning player. You hear the arguments. Hell, it may well be that you argue that side of the argument. And I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong. But we’ll return to the question of Anthony the winner a little later.”